canoodle
Syllables: ca·noo·dleUK/kəˈnuːdl̩//kəˈnud(ə)l/
canoodle verb: to caress, fondle, or pet (someone); also, to have sexual intercourse with (someone); to make love with.
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Verb
canoodle (third-person singular simple present canoodles, present participle canoodling, simple past and past participle canoodled)
- To caress, fondle, or pet (someone); also, to have sexual intercourse with (someone); to make love with.
- He’s got a big smile on his face—who’s he been canoodling recently?
- To cajole or persuade (someone).
- “There,” she cried triumphantly, when her labours were finished, “it [the drawing-room] looks different now, really quite effective and ‘canoodling’.”[1877, Anna C. Steele, chapter XXI, in Condoned. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 243
- And above all things, do not let her kanoodle you with soft words and looks of love, because she is full of 'em. If she can't scare you, with her indignation at the outrage of arresting and searching her, she will try to capture you and make you love her. You must be as firm as adamant.1887, Geo[rge] W[ilbur] Peck, chapter XII, in How Private Geo. W. Peck Put Down the Rebellion, Or The Funny Experiences of a Raw Recruit, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Belford, Clarke & Co., →OCLC...
- Synonyms:
- coax, inveigle, sweet-talk, wheedle, blandander, blandish, butter up, cajole, sweeten, fast-talk
- Of a person: to caress, fondle, or pet another person; of two people: to caress, fondle, or pet each other; also, to have sexual intercourse; to make love.
- Young Robin and my daughter. / ‘Canoodling’ too. This must lead to manslaughter.[1874], Charles Millward, The Grand Annual Comic Christmas Pantomime Entitled, Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross: […], Birmingham: […] Theatre Royal Printing Works, →OCLC, scene iii, page 9
- Gerald Arbuthnot sat with her in the library all the time Jim was upstairs dying and they canoodled together on the sofa in front of the fire.1915, Frank Danby [pseudonym; Julia Frankau], “The Arbuthnot Case”, in The Story behind the Verdict, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, →OCLC, page 58
Noun (1)
canoodle (plural canoodles)
- A caress, a cuddle, a hug.
- She got on with the crewmen, all of whom liked her and at least one of whom, Pinky Montmorency, took more than a casual interest in her. Probably a bit of a canoodle now and then in the room behind the office.1980, Peter De Vries, chapter 1, in Consenting Adults or The Duchess will be Furious […], Boston, Mass.; Toronto, Ont.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 6
Noun (2)
canoodle (plural canoodles)
Examples of canoodle in a sentence
- He canoodled my husband into believin' that the end of the world was comin' and it was his duty to give all his property away.1900, Charles Felton Pidgin, Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason’s Corner Folks: […] A Picture of New England Home Life, Boston, Mass.: C. M....
- 'Our maid Doris canoodles with the postman when he comes round.' Agnes pulled a face.2014, Lizzie Lane, chapter 2, in Home for Christmas (Magna Large Print Books), Long Preston, North Yorkshire: Ebury Press, published 2015...
- And it was often hedges in which I canoodled.2022 August 7, Jessica Fostekew, “‘I canoodled in hedges and fumbled in recycling bins as a teenager – and I don’t regret a thing’”, in...
Synonyms of canoodle
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of canoodle
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | canoodles |
| present participle | canoodling |
| past participle | canoodled |
| past | canoodled |
| alternative form | cannoodle |
| alternative form | conoodle |
| alternative form | kanoodle |
| Noun | |
| plural | canoodles |
Origin of canoodle
The origin of the verb is uncertain; the following possibilities have been suggested: * From a blend of ca(ress) + noodle (“to engage in frivolous behavior; to fool around or waste time; to mess around, to play”). * From German knuddeln (“to cuddle; (originally) to embrace tightly”); or related to Low German knuddle (“a clump, a knot”), a diminutive of knude, related to Old High German knodo, knoto (“a knot”) (modern German Knoten (“knot”)); ultimate etymology unknown. Compare also Norwegian Bokmål knulle (“to fuck”), Swedish knulla (“to fuck”), both from Proto-Germanic *knuzlijaną (“to beat; to mash”) (and also compare the semantics of the Scandinavian cognates of fuck). The noun is probably derived from the verb.
Origin unknown.
Words formed from canoodle
Words that rhyme with canoodle
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about canoodle
- What does canoodle mean?
- Canoodle means to caress, fondle, or pet (someone); also, to have sexual intercourse with (someone); to make love with.
- How do you use canoodle in a sentence?
- He canoodled my husband into believin' that the end of the world was comin' and it was his duty to give all his property away.
- What part of speech is canoodle?
- Canoodle can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce canoodle?
- Canoodle is pronounced /kəˈnuːdl̩/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of canoodle?
- The past tense of canoodle is canoodled.
Words near canoodle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: canoodle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-canoodle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “canoodle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/canoodle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.